Golden State Warriors: Draymond Green’s Quiet Career Year

With Stephen Curry leading the league in scoring at 33.9 points per game and on pace to shatter his own three-point record (286) by more than 100, the Golden State Warriors have been the basketball equivalent of cocaine: unstoppable and highly addictive, to the point of being hazardous to one’s health.

On a game-to-game basis, Curry does three or four things that would be mind-boggling if we weren’t somehow getting used to seeing them every night. He’s averaging 5.2 made three-pointers per game — more than the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves so far this season.

But lost in Curry’s historic shooting prowess has been Draymond Green, who is quietly continuing to do Draymond Green things in what might be a career season.

Through the first 10 games, Green is averaging 11.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. His 6.6 assists per game ranks him 12th in the league, joining LeBron James for the most assists per game among all non-guards. He’s also shooting 44.7 percent from the field and a career-best 44.4 percent from three-point range.

Ten games is an admittedly small sample size, but Green’s looks from beyond the arc have been quality, confident shots. After working so hard to add a three-point shot to his arsenal last season, the league should be on notice that Golden State’s Swiss Army knife may have just added another, more consistent tool to his kit.

Heading into Friday night’s slate of games, Green leads the league in point differential (+16.0) and the Warriors have outscored opponents by 22.0 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, per NBA.com.

On a team boasting the league’s top ranked offense and second ranked defense, most of the Warriors’ top players have insanely impressive offensive and defensive ratings. When he’s making plays like this, it’s easy to see why:

But Green’s offensive rating of 114.6 (ranked fifth in the league among players playing at least 25 minutes per game) and defensive rating of 92.8 (seventh among players playing at least 25 minutes per game) are a true testament to his two-way impact on an undefeated team that, if healthy, could wind up winning 70 games this year.

Green is clearly not an individual superstar. Of his 42 made field goals on the season, 32 of them have been assisted. He’s not even averaging 12 points per game and if he were the lone star on a bottom-feeder team, there’s no question his value would not nearly be as high as it is in Golden State.

But Green’s fit with the Warriors is perfect for both him and the Dubs. As the roll guy on pick-and-roll sets featuring Curry (who is the league’s most dangerous ball handler/shooter coming off screens), Green is doing serious when he catches the ball.

As either a pick-and-pop stretch-4 or a playmaker attacking the basket out of the ensuing 4-on-3 advantage, Green has made defenses pay no matter how they play the pick-and-roll.

Green has only taken four corner threes (making two of them), but he’s been superb above the break, which is where he typically catches passes out of the pick-and-roll as a stretch-4. On threes above the break, Green has made 14 of his 32 attempts (43.8 percent):

Again, Green rarely creates his own offense (especially from three-point range), but he’s been extremely effective creating offense for others, with the fifth highest assist ratio among players playing at least 25 minutes per game (34.0).

Of his 66 total assists, 10 have come to Festus Ezeli, usually by drawing the defense in and finding the Warriors’ promising big man for easy alley-oops and dunks.

Even more impressively, 30 of Green’s 66 assists have gone to the Splash Brothers, with Draymond finding open shooters on the perimeter and making plays besides the obvious dump-down looks.

Defensively, Green has posted a -9.8 defensive field goal percentage, meaning opponents shoot 9.8 percent worse when defended by him, per NBA.com. On shots from less than six feet, that number skyrockets to -21.8 percent, making him one of the league’s most underrated rim deterrents.

In the first game of the season, Green held Anthony Davis to 18 points on 4-of-20 shooting. In the second game, he limited Terrence Jones to four points on 2-of-7 shooting. He’s held Zach Randolph to four points on 2-of-9 shooting in one of Golden State’s two meetings with the Memphis Grizzlies and he’s been locking down talented frontcourt players all season long.

Combine that same defensive intensity we saw last year with his usual rebounding prowess, his undeniable flair as a master s**t-talker and his personality as an ever-loyal teammate, and Green’s impact on the Warriors’ impressive 10-0 start has been sorely underrated.

Just take a look at some of his stat lines from the season so far. A 9-7-7 against the Houston Rockets. A 21-6-4 against the New Orleans Pelicans. Another near triple-double against the Memphis Grizzlies at 11-9-8, following by yet another against the Denver Nuggets (12-9-8) a few nights later.

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A 10-9-7 against the Sacramento Kings, a 6-10-9 against the Detroit Pistons, a 23-8-12 against Minnesota Timberwolves…you get the picture. A few assists here and a few rebounds there, and Green could have anywhere from one to five triple-doubles through Golden State’s first 10 games.

Green isn’t going to blow anyone away in the scoring column, but the Dubs don’t need him to put up 20 a night with Curry, Klay Thompson and a well-balanced group of role players providing that scoring punch.

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Rather, his Rajon Rondo-esque stat lines are exactly what the Warriors need, and he’s supplying them with the kind of blue-collar two-way play that made him worth every penny of his five-year, $84 million extension. Stephen Curry is this team’s MVP, but Draymond Green remains their biggest X-factor.